Low property taxes in the Capital Region!?!

Well, make that relatively low taxes in the Capital Region — and that’s relative to the rest of New York state, rather than the nation.

As shown in the above chart, an analysis by the Empire Center found that property taxes in the Capital Region are lower than anywhere in New York except Long Island. Of course, property tax rates are going to be higher in places, like western New York, with very low home values.

Within the Capital Region, Schenectady has the highest burden, with an average effective tax rate of $39.57 per $1,000 of property value. The small town of Edinburg, meanwhile, had the lowest rate, at $7.15.

The center also found that:

Residents of the village of Wellsville in New York’s Southern Tier bear the state’s heaviest property tax burden, with an effective rate of $62.20 per $1,000, which is more than double the regional median.

The lowest-taxed community in the state is the Village of Sagaponack in Long Island’s Hamptons, which had an effective rate of just $1.32.

Fulton, in Oswego County, is the most heavily taxed city in New York, with an effective rate of $51.14.

The Rye School District portion of the City of Rye in in Westchester County is the lowest-taxed area within cities, with an effective rate of $15.68.

I beg to differ. My In-Laws pay lower taxes in Rochester for similar properties in this area. Over here I pay around $4,500 for a 3 bedroom on about a quarter acre lot. A friend in Nassau County (Long Island) pays close to $15,000 for a similar property. My relatives own close to 400 acres in the North Country and only pay $12,000 for the whole thing… all of which is paid for by profits made on the land. Taxes per 1,000 are not the same when you consider assessment percentage rates!

These numbers games should ONLY be played with ACTUAL taxes paid not the amount per thousand.

Vincent:
These numbers are calculated so that assessment percentage rates aren’t a factor. The problem with the report is that property values vary so much across the state. Property tax rates are going to buy higher in places like western New York, because property values are so low there. Towns and cities therefore need a higher rate to raise the same amount of money.

As the Empire Center said: “New York’s highest effective property tax rates are imposed in cities and rural areas with low property values, while the lowest effective rates are found in resort communities and wealthy areas with very high property values.”

When I am paying more taxes on my house in Schenectady less than a quarter of what my friend’s house is in Clifton Park, this is not a fair comparison study of property taxes. I would rather pay less taxes for a house worth 4 times the house in Saratoga county where the value of my home has the potential of increasing and not decreasing as I have in Schenectady for the last 20 years…..

One of the reasons that property values are low is because the tax rate is so high!!! If you could somehow lure the suburban crowd back to the city(ieAlbany) with tax free housing for 5-10 years then your city would boom. All the people who left the city to rot to seek better(white) school districts and more land (lower taxes) would move back in a minute. Instead of places like cental Detroit rotting you would have empty suburbs that could be returned to their natural habitat..ie farmland etc. Do people really need 3 acres of land and 30 minute drives to get groceries?? We could consolidate all the fire and police forces with the consolidated cities as we could with the school systems. Wealthy people could interact with poor people and we could learn to improve our society together…all just by lowering property taxes! Too bad there are too many people in the burbs protecting their nests and would refuse this Utopian vision but a guy can dream can’t he?

Yes the amount per thousand is deceiving. My in laws live near Buffalo and their house, which is nice and is on 30 acres is only valued at $60,000, so the tax rate per thousand may be higher than here, but since their house is valued so low, they pay much less in taxes than we do.

If you notice, the tax rate per thousand gets LOWER as you get into more expensive areas (Capital Region, Hudson Valley, Long Island). I don’t think this is a valid article, since it implies that people in Western NY pay more in taxes, when that is probably not the case.

I agree with Vincent. When looking for a big historic house in the Capital District, a house in Saratoga Springs would be assessed for 3-4 times as much as a house in Schenectady. So even though the tax rate seems better in Saratoga, at the end of the day, I pay the same taxes for a similar sized property in Schenectady as in Saratoga. And I could never afford the mortgage on a nice house in Saratoga anyways.

@9—Bob, that’s a fact. I owned a house in SC that was 1830 sq. ft., 3 bdrms, 2 full bath, bonus room (4th bdrm), 2 car garage and I payed less than $1000 a year for school and property taxes.
Total bill was 9 something.